On this edition of TV Tuesday, we feature another episode of one of my favorite shows "What's My Line?". This episode from the sixth season happens to be one of my favorites. Let's meet our panelists!
They are popular newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, television personality Robert Q. Lewis, theater actress Arlene Francis, and publisher Bennett Cerf. All very qualified for their prescribed function on this episode.
Our host, as ever, is Mr. John Charles Daly, who moderates the panel with extreme verve.
We get to our first guest. The panel takes a look and then makes their guesses as to what his line is. Their responses? A department store Santa Claus, a college professor, a happy second hand car salesman, and a dentist.
We find out that he runs a Santa Claus school. Dorothy Kilgallen got the closest with her guess.
He doesn't get very far. Dorothy sticks to her hunch and is very pleased when she guesses it after the man has won only $5.
The next guess is a lady from Scotland. Instantly, John and the panel launch into Scottish accents with varying degrees of success. The panel makes their guesses. They believe she either writes poetry, plays a hot bagpipe with the Edinburgh Jazz Fife, makes Scotch scones, or is a gardener.
None of them are even close. This lady destroys obsolete bombs from World War II!
The panel has the hardest time with this one. Robert Q. Lewis has worked out that she has something to do with a thing that is metal, has moving parts, and is unpleasant. He says, "I know nothing of metal with unpleasant moving parts, and I pass to Miss Francis." After which, the entire panel and audience erupts with laughter.
Robert further works out that it's a bomb. John mentions that it's now the panels job to figure out what she has to do with bombs. Robert looks confused and says, "Oh, I do hope little or nothing." More laughter from the audience. Nobody can guess. So, the guest wins the full $50.
Then, it's time for the mystery celebrity. With the panel blindfolded, Mr. Louis Jourdan walks in to general cheers from the audience. He proceeds to put on quite the accent and thoroughly confuses the panel. It is quite fun to watch.
Eventually, Arlene Francis comes to the conclusion that it's Louis Jourdan. Her shock and delight at the way he was able to fool the panel is priceless.
You can watch Louis's section of the program here. You really wouldn't believe he was a Frenchman if you didn't already know.
Following the mystery celebrity segment, the panel has time for a quick round with another guest. They decide she either teaches the mambo, makes a wonderful Pasta Fazool ("and if she does I wanna marry her!" exclaims Robert Q. Lewis), or is a double for Mamie Eisenhower. Arlene makes a joke during her guess which I don't catch.
They are all wrong. This guest is a physical instructor at the Y.M.C.A.
Dorothy is in fine form. When it's her turn, she gets to the right answer within a couple of questions, which results in the guest winning $10.
However, before the broadcast, the guest told John that whatever she wins will be donated to charity. He declares himself in a flipping mood and flips the rest of the cards over, giving her the full $50 prize to end the evening.
Cast rundown:
John Daly..........................................Himself
Robert Q. Lewis..................................Himself
Louis Jourdan....................................Himself
And that's it for What's My Line?. This entire episode is delightful to watch. At the end of this episode, John mentions that Dorothy will be traveling to Cleveland, Ohio, to continue reporting on the Dr. Sam Sheppard murder trial. Sheppard was eventually convicted of murdering his wife. However, Dorothy did not believe the story and worked for years to overturn the verdict. She released a crucial piece of testimony in 1964, and Sheppard was released from prison. Shortly after Dorothy's death, Sheppard was retried and acquitted of the crime.
You can watch the episode in its entirety here. It's well worth your time. The episode also references the film "Three Coins In The Fountain", which featured Louis Jourdan and had been released earlier that year.
Coming up next is 1957's "An Affair To Remember", a remake of the film "Love Affair", where a man and woman fall in love on a transatlantic crossing. An accident threatens to end their love story, set to begin on top of the Empire State Building.
The film's cast includes Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Q. Lewis, Fortunio Bonanova, Geraldine Wall, and Jesslyn Fax.
On a ship bound from Europe to New York, playboy Nicky Ferrante and nightclub singer Terry McKay meet. The catalyst of their meeting is a lost cigarette case.
Their conversation turns into a dinner date, where they find they enjoy each other's company very much. "I must stay tuned into you," says Nicky to Terry.
They spend several days of the voyage together, learning more about one another, and drinking pink champagne.
On a stopover in Villefranche, Nicky invites Terry to join him on a visit to his grandmother. They journey to her secluded residence high above the town, and Terry is captivated by it.
And Nicky's grandmother takes a particular liking to Terry, and she eventually comes to believe that Terry is the right woman for her grandson.
Before returning to their ship, Nicky's grandmother (a former concert pianist) plays the piano for them, as Terry sings. (It's a very beautiful scene.)
When the time comes to say farewell, Terry can hardly make herself leave this enchanted world of Nicky's grandmother.
Back on board the ship, Nicky and Terry's relationship takes a romantic turn.
Because both are engaged to other people, they agree that it's best if they keep apart for appearance sake. They still manage small moments together in passing.
On their last night aboard ship, Nicky and Terry discuss their future. "Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories. We've already missed the spring," says Terry. "We'd be fools to let happiness pass us by," Nicky tells her. They come up with a plan to meet in six months, that way Nicky can find a job and they can both break off their respective relationships.
As the ship pulls into New York harbor the next morning, a hurried meeting sees Nicky and Terry making plans to meet on the top floor of the Empire State Building in six months. They part with a quick kiss.
And Terry arrives home to break things off with her boyfriend, Ken.
Nicky gets right to work painting. He's pretty good, though his dealer says he would do a lot better if he signed his real name instead of a pseudonym.
Terry goes back to work in a nightclub. Her farewell song is "An Affair To Remember".
On the day they are supposed to meet at the Empire State Building, Nicky gets there early. However, he waits and waits for Terry, who never comes.
It turns out she was there that day, but as she was looking up she was hit by an automobile. Confined to a wheelchair, she doesn't want Nicky to know about her condition.
Saddened, Nicky takes a trip to Europe to visit his grandmother. Upon arrival, he finds out that she is dead. A caretaker gives him a shawl that his grandmother wanted Terry to have. Nicky paints a picture of his grandmother and Terry. And he eventually has his dealer give it to a woman in a wheelchair because she falls in love with it.
After recovering her strength (though still unable to walk), Terry gets a job as a music teacher, teaching inner city kids to sing songs such as "He Knows You Inside Out".
Days later, Nicky arrives unexpectedly at Terry's apartment and gives her the shawl his grandmother left to her. He begins to get suspicious about why Terry doesn't get up from her seated position.
He tells her that he painted her wearing the shawl. As he tells her the story, Nicky begins to put two and two together. He searches the apartment and finds the painting, now realizing that Terry was the woman in the wheelchair who wanted it. The two fall into each other's arms and begin their relationship again.
And that's all for An Affair To Remember. This movie was voted the #5 greatest romance of all time by the American Film Institute. Though it depicts New York and the south of France, the film was actually shot mostly in Hollywood. When Cathleen Nesbitt's friends asked her how she liked shooting her scenes with Cary Grant in France, she had to inform them that the filming was done on the backlot at 20th Century Fox. Cary Grant was only fifteen years younger than Nesbitt, who played his grandmother.
